Israel Posts 2012 Budget Deficit of 4.2% of GDP on Tax

Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Israel posted a budget deficit of 39
billion shekels ($10.43 billion) for 2012, or 4.2 percent of
gross domestic product, more than double the government target.

“The deviation of the deficit from the original planned
budget was mostly due to lower-than-planned income of 18.5
billion shekels, as well as higher-than planned spending of 2.2
billion shekels,” the Finance Ministry said in an e-mailed
statement today. The report uses initial figures, it said.

Israel has struggled to contain the budget deficit as
slowing global growth moderated the expansion of the export-dependent economy, shrinking tax revenue. Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, who raised taxes midway through 2012 to help
boost revenue, called early elections for Jan. 22, after failing
to reach an agreement with coalition parties regarding the 2013
budget.

Israel will find 14 billion shekels of savings by reducing
spending rather than increasing taxes in 2013, Finance Minister
Yuval Steinitz said last week in an interview in New York.

Economic growth slowed to 3.3 percent in 2012, the Central
Bureau of Statistics said Dec. 31, compared with 4.6 percent in
the previous year and 5 percent in 2010.